Fox Hunting In Scotland – Jed And Buried?

Glasgow Hunt Saboteurs report on their first season under new hunting law in Scotland.

“When the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act was passed in January 2023, Scottish hunt sabs were, of course, elated but also cautious about the future of hunting with hounds in Scotland. After all, we knew only too well that the previous law, which was introduced in 2002, was deeply flawed and allowed hunts to continue much as they did before.

Within weeks of the Act being passed, two hunts, the Fife Foxhounds and our local hunt, the Lanarkshire & Renfrewshire Foxhounds, both collapsed, which was a huge win for wildlife. The latter being very significant for us as we had spent years sabbing every possible meet that we could attend.

Although ecstatic that two hunts had folded, we still had little information on other hunts in Scotland. Due to there only being a few sab groups spread across a very large geographical stretch of the Scottish landscape, we knew we had a lot of work to do in finding out what they were up to.

With the new law being delayed, we started the season in September 2023 by travelling a few hours down into the Scottish Borders to sab every early morning cubbing meet of the Berwickshire Hunt that we could get to. Our presence was a massive spanner in the works for the hunt and we left multiple meets confident that there were no kills.

The new Act finally became law in October 2023 and hunts in Scotland found themselves scrambling for some sort of justification to explain what they were up to. It quickly became clear that these hunts never quite thought this day would actually come, and no real work had been put in place ready for the law changing. The Berwickshire Hunt, for example, was out on Saturday 30th September 2023, under the old law hunting fox cubs, then just seven days later, – under the new law – attempting to hunt an artificial drag and telling us that the hunt was now fully committed to not hunting wildlife.

The 2023 law states that only two hounds can be used to flush a fox from covert to be shot. If a hunt wanted to take out more hounds, they would require a licence from NatureScot, which comes with a long list of rules that must be adhered to. Any foul play comes with serious consequences. At the time of writing this, we understand that no mounted fox hunt in Scotland has a licence.

Whilst hunt monitors got stuck into keeping eyes on hunts now supposedly drag hunting, another group, Scottish Borders Hunt Sabs was keeping tabs on the notorious Jedforest Hunt, who sit on the Scottish/English border. Sabs repeatedly caught the hunt out with a full pack of hounds, but upon seeing sabs, would put them away and continue with just two. The confused hunt even had one rider carrying a scented drag. However, no drag hunting was ever seen.

Deciding that the Jedforest was a legitimate cause for concern, we decided to focus solely on them and scupper any attempts at killing wildlife.

Every time we visited the Jedforest, the same thing would happen. Huntsman Matthew Wilkinson would leave the meet with a full pack of hounds, spot sabs and leg it back to the meet.

This is a hunt with a savage history of bloodlust and no regard for the law. We were recently sent horrific footage from 2020 where a fox was dug out of the ground and thrown to the hounds. This footage was never submitted to the police despite it being of a very serious nature.

This season, at various Jedforest meets, we managed to aid several foxes to safety and documented lots of illegal activity along the way. We constantly reported vehicles from the hunt which were untaxed, without plates, carrying small children, and on one occasion, a masked-up shooter of the hunt was even driving a SORN vehicle on public roads all day long. Hunt staff told us repeatedly that the police were not interested in them.

Sadly, on Boxing Day, the hunt was hellbent on killing and was furious at us being with them. Punches were thrown by hunt staff in a clear attempt to keep us away from them. At one point, they surrounded a patch of gorse, hunting the two hounds through it relentlessly. Eight quad bikes of lads, including multiple shooters, made it impossible for any fox to break free from the gorse. Eventually, they shot a very healthy-looking fox inside the covert. Sabs retrieved the body and posted the image, which was shared hundreds of thousands of times, throwing the Jedforest Hunt into the spotlight. We later found out from locals that the fox population in the area was semi-tame and being fed in the gardens of local residents – so much for so-called vital ‘pest’ control.

Since then, we have made sure that every Saturday meet of the Jedforest until the end of the season was swamped with sabs. It became obvious that riders were dropping in number, and both car and foot support started declining week by week. Clearly, our presence was having a ruinous effect on the hunt. Also, thanks to local intel, we were made aware that the hunt is in serious financial trouble and struggling to continue.

The final meet of the season saw the Jedforest pull in support from other hunts who had already finished up. However, the hunt headed so far inland that no one who came to watch them would have been able to see anything. We had a suspicion that the hunt had started with more hounds than they should have, and our concerns were confirmed when we filmed huntsman Matthew blowing his horn to gather the hounds for around 15-20 minutes. However, both “legal” hounds were at his feet. None of the Jedforest supporters could answer our question as to what was going on and if there were indeed more hounds elsewhere on the hills.

Sabs came down off the hills at the end of the day to find that one of our tyres had been slashed. Hunt master Trevor Adams took to our social media pages to ‘like’ the picture of the damage along with several hunt supporters finding the damage hilarious.

Sadly, for the Jedforest, though, it’s us who have the last laugh. The hunt stupidly thought that when sabs were not in attendance, they could do what they wanted with no regard for the current law. Unfortunately for them, there were people watching and the footage gathered by the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland was sent straight to the police. As a result, Matthew Wilkinson was arrested and charged with three separate hunting offences, making him the first to be charged under the new law, which carries much tougher sentencing guidelines.

When the hunting season begins again in the Autumn, we wonder if the Jedforest Hunt will still be around. Mark our words: if they are, they will be opposed at every meet we can possibly attend. We will also start looking at other Scottish hunts that have gone under the radar for far too long. The war against fox hunting in Scotland isn’t over yet. However, until then, we remain vigilant and under no illusions that hunts will behave themselves when no one is watching.”

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